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AGC, MSU Present Annual Construction Career Day

AGC, MSU Present Annual Construction Career Day
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By Paul Schaumburg, Graves County Schools
Sep. 21, 2016 | MURRAY, KY
By Paul Schaumburg, Graves County Schools Sep. 21, 2016 | 08:51 AM | MURRAY, KY
“It’s a great way to see what is needed,” said Graves County High School senior Devin Stroud. “I plan to go into the union.”

Graves High junior John Holmes said he made contacts based on his interest in a machine tooling career.

“It’s a great opportunity for all of us to get experience with machine tools, to look at the opportunities we have in careers, and to think about what our lives can be,” said Mayfield High School junior Chris Stewart.

“They had us make both wooden and metal toolboxes at one of the booths,” said Andrew Passwater, a Mayfield High student. “That ties into my interest in carpentry!”

All four students also take hands-on classes at the Mayfield-Graves County Area Technology Center, as they explore career options. Their comments came from a special event held Thursday, Sept. 15.

“This is our sixth year for construction career day,” said Chris Nelson, executive vice-president of the Associated General Contractors of Western Kentucky. “We started with our group and the Murray State University Institute of Engineering. We have an education committee made up of principals from various vocational schools and contractors. We got together and decided to put this together to attract high school students to construction careers. We started reaching out to various members as vendors within our association. They were excited about it and it was a pretty easy task. They understand the need and want to get out in front of these young people and give them some potential pathways to construction careers.”

Nelson continued, “We have a national organization in Washington, D.C., and they just completed a survey of approximately 2,000 contractors nationwide and 75 percent of those contractors say they need trade-skilled workers. The work is starting to ramp up and we need more workers! The Baby Boomers are retiring and the average age of a construction worker now is about 48 years old! So, for future projects, we need young people to start coming into the field to take their places.”

He added, “The survey also indicates there’s a need for project managers and other positions that usually require a college education. So, we have a great relationship with Murray State, West Kentucky Community and Technical College, and the local vocational schools associated with high schools. Today, we have 25 high schools feeding into 18 area technology centers coming. From the Mississippi River eastward, we get Kentucky schools as far as Warren East High School. Our program is unique in many ways and draws from a large geographic area. We really appreciate our partnerships with these school districts and with Murray State.”

“Our primary focus for this event is to help young people see opportunities to go into the skilled trades,” said Danny Claiborne, chair for MSU’s Institute of Engineering. “I’ve talked to construction contractors and organizations in this room today who tell me they can’t do more work than they’re doing because they need more workers! These are jobs that pay well and can last a lifetime! Some of these students will pursue their interests in a two-year program at West Kentucky Community and Technical College and some then will pursue management careers by getting a four-year degree in engineering technology at Murray State. There’s a three-tiered level. With this as our sixth year of this annual career day, we’re seeing that process playing out.”

“My background is in career and technical education on the business side,” said Annie Dail, special projects coordinator in MSU’s College of Science, Engineering, and Technology. “Application-based learning is a great way to connect to careers! This is so cool! For students to come here to see what is available in the working world and in which companies they might find work. In my position, we work to place students in internship programs with companies. We have programs to make that partnership worthwhile for both students and companies.”

“This construction career day exposes kids to more careers than we can,” said Joel Crider, the electricity instructor at the Mayfield-Graves County Area Technology Center. He teaches students from Mayfield, Graves County, and Carlisle County high schools. “We’ve been coming here ever since this started six years ago. Some of my students from last year connected with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Those IBEW guys came to our school and ended up hosting a competition for our students. Our kids meeting those professionals here really made a difference! A couple of them even got into the IBEW apprenticeship program!”

“We come out here to show these students there are options besides college,” said Jarrod Shadowen of the Paducah Electrical Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee. “In our program, we have a five-year apprenticeship. We’re a union program, where apprentices go to school one night a week and we make sure they are employed full-time. Over that five years, they’re getting paid every day to go to work and the school tuition costs just $200 a year, $1,000 altogether, and you can’t beat that! When they finish, they are licensed electricians in Kentucky and journeymen wiremen through the IBEW, and they’re making $50,000 to $60,000 per year! We’re seeing a lot of the younger generation getting interested and involved.”

“There’s a lot of stuff that pertains to our kind of work,” said Kevin Hutchens, carpentry teacher at the Mayfield-Graves County Area Technology Center, “but there are so many cool machines to try out! I would have loved this when I was in high school!”

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